All Quiet on the Western Front

Erich Maria Remarque
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Synopsis:

Considered by many the greatest war novel of all time, All Quiet on the Western Front is Erich Maria Remarque's masterpiece of the German experience during World War I.

I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. . . .

This is the testament of Paul Bäumer, who enlists with his classmates in the German army during World War I. They become soldiers with youthful enthusiasm. But the world of duty, culture, and progress they had been taught breaks in pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches.

Through years of vivid horror, Paul holds fast to a single vow: to fight against the principle of hate that meaninglessly pits young men of the same generation but different uniforms against one another . . . if only he can come out of the war alive.

"The world has a great writer in Erich Maria Remarque. He is a craftsman of unquestionably first rank, a man who can bend language to his will. Whether he writes of men or of inanimate nature, his touch is sensitive, firm, and sure."-The New York Times Book Review

Excerpt:

We are at rest five miles behind the front. Yesterday we were relieved, and now our bellies are full of beef and haricot beans. We are satisfied and at peace. Each man has another mess-tin full for th...

About the Author:

ERICH MARIA REMARQUE was born in Germany in 1898 and drafted into the German army during World War I. His novel All Quiet on the Western Front was published in 1928 and was an instant best seller. When the Nazis came to power,…

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literary fiction, historical fiction, history

A heartfelt story of despair from our 21st century perspective, but a tale of gallantry being ebbed away from the role of the young German soldier.

1/21/2023 10:00:34 AM

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